“Why exactly is Apple’s former hardware chief Bob Mansfield sticking around, despite announcing plans to retire?” Josh Lowensohn asks for CNET. “A new story claims some of the company’s top employees did not believe Mansfield’s replacement was ready for the job, something that led to infighting within the company’s top ranks.”
Lowensohn reports, “Bloomberg Businessweek throws in a tidbit about the situation, saying that some of Apple’s senior engineers went straight to current CEO Tim Cook when they learned Dan Riccio would replace Mansfield as the company’s hardware chief: ‘According to three people familiar with the sequence of events, several senior engineers on Mansfield’s team vociferously complained to Cook about reporting to his replacement, Dan Riccio, who they felt was unprepared for the magnitude of the role. In response, Cook approached Mansfield and offered him an exorbitant package of cash and stock worth around $2 million a month to stay on at Apple as an adviser and help manage the hardware engineering team.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bob Mansfield is worth every penny. This will give Riccio time and and the benefit of Mansfield’s counsel in his new position so that when Bob finally does retire, Dan will be extremely well-prepared to lead Apple’s hardware efforts. No need to risk the possibility of Apple’s hardware team being Browettized, too.
Related articles:
Apple CEO Tim Cook expands executive team, Senior VP Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield will not retire – August 27, 2012
Bob Mansfield, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, to retire; Dan Riccio to take over – June 28, 2012
Apple executive Manfield’s dream home touches off battle in California – May 3, 2012
MDN back in the groove
I am so glad. You would have thought that somebody had shot their dog.
It was a pit bull. It had it coming.
Sigh…I’m only worth a million a month.:)
Hopefully Dan won’t seek revenge on his rogue engineers after Bob does leave.
Bob is one damn fine engineer, I’d love to work for him.
Lets see, 2,000,000xpi 7=….
Ah, screw it, he’s worth it.
Agreed..
A peaceful and orderly transition is advantageous to the longevity of the organization.
Time for Tim Cook to start leading.
What do you think this is? It is clearly LEADERSHIP!
There was internal strife, Cook steps in, finds a compromise, where everyone wins.
As an investor I’m tickled pink. Keep everybody happy. And I think MDN has been doing just fine. Most of us like honest objective points of view. Those who are unable to be critical are called fanboys. And let’s face it, who respects pussies who are afraid to be critical when they should be? Nobody!